Iatrophobia
by Jetsir
Summary: Unable to face her greatest fear, Jinx ends up putting herself in grave danger. Now, a certain red-headed superhero must save her before it's too late. T for swearing.


**A/N: **_My take on a "Jinx is vulnerable" fic. Iatrophobia is the fear of doctors._

**Iatrophobia**

Everything was hazy. Jinx didn't know where she was or how she had gotten herself there. Stuck in that place between sleeping and waking, Jinx struggled to get a hold of her situation. She knew that parts of her hurt, but couldn't tell what. She knew that she wasn't dead, but couldn't tell how far she was _from_ dying. If she could, she would have knit her eyebrows in confusion, but as she slowly gained consciousness, all she could manage was the minutest of twitches of her left eyebrow.

Then she heard it.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

The sound of a heart monitor. She knew of only one place in which such devices were used: Hospitals.

Ruthlessly, Jinx tore her mind from its deep slumber with a strangled cry. Sure enough, she was in a white, sterile hospital room. Looking down, she saw that she was wearing a hospital gown that closed at the side. Around her middle was a decent amount of gauze that was no doubt protecting a rather nasty injury beneath it. All around her were various monitoring devices that she was hooked up to like she was a machine, herself. She tried to control her breathing as her brain connected all the dots and told her that she was currently a patient in this hospital room.

_Patient. Hospital_. No. NO. Nonononono_runrunrunrunrun __**RUN-**_

The beeps from the heart monitor increased like an orchestra conductor directing her rising panic. Frantically she began tearing off the various stickers and attachments that connected her body to the cold machines that surrounded her like a wall of guards. As she disconnected herself from the heart monitor and the device flat-lined, a horde of doctors burst into the room, alert and ready.

They surged upon her, all talking rapidly, but Jinx couldn't hear them over the chaos in her mind. One of the doctors put his hands on her shoulders and tried to push her back down onto the bed.

The room went pink.

The doctors were all knocked onto their backs, some unconscious. Furniture broke. The TV that hung from the ceiling exploded in a storm of sparks and debris. The bed Jinx was on collapsed and she was jostled off of it, rolling onto the floor. Barely acknowledging- or simply unaware of- the terrible pain in her abdomen, Jinx rose and ran from the room, down the hallway, and out of that white, cubic prison, taking out anything- or anyone- in her way.

She ran without a destination, just trying to get farther_farther__**farther**_ away from that place. She paid no mind to her current attire, or the fact that her abdomen was on fire (a really bad poisoned knife wound from a local rogue, a part of her mind remembered), or the fact that her vision was blurring with tears of utter panic and fear. She just ran. She ran until all track of time was lost. Until every ragged breath bled into the one that followed it. Until the pain was too great to ignore and she fell into a pathetic heap in an abandoned alleyway.

She made a sound that was a mixture of a gasp for breath, and a cry of pain. She pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, one hand clutched at her stomach. She felt dampness and pulled her hand away to inspect it. Blood. She was bleeding. _A lot_. She made that same sound again, this time with a bit of a sob in it.

Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder. With a shriek she released a rush of pink energy that knocked her assailant to the ground. With a great deal of struggling, she pulled herself to her feet- relying heavily on the dingy wall beside her- to be better prepared for any oncoming attack.

She heard a familiar groan and she looked up in surprise. There, in a pile of yellow and red spandex was-

"_Speedy!_"

The boy in question pulled himself to his feet, he rubbed his head, "what the fuck, Jinx?"

"Go to hell!" she snapped back, though it didn't have its usual bite as she was beginning to feel woozy from the blood loss.

The archer got ready to fire off a scathing retort when he glanced down at the splotch of red on her hospital gown that was rapidly growing as he watched it, "look, you're obviously seriously hurt," he slowly approached her reaching out a hand, "I don't know why you decided to go all prison break at the hospital, but everyone's worried and you need some medical attention-"

"**BACK OFF!**" another flash of pink, but the archer got out of the way just in time, "you can just back the fuck off!" yelled the pink-haired sorceress.

Speedy tensed, on guard. Jinx looked positively crazy. But behind all that rage he could see what he thought was a glimpse of fear. Speedy frowned, could it really be possible that Jinx, one of the toughest girls in the Titans, was afraid of doctors and hospitals? He nearly sighed in frustration. He wasn't the one that should be handling this. Jinx had a boyfriend, a tactful and emotionally sensitive boyfriend at that. Kid Flash should've been the one to deal with this particular moment of life-and-death. But no, Speedy was the one there, and with Jinx firing off hex-bolts and the possibility that an arrow would worsen the girl's condition, it was up to Speedy to talk her into coming back to the hospital.

Speedy dropped his quiver and bow to the ground and held up his hands, trying to communicate how harmless he was. Still she watched him as if he was a dangerous animal. "Look, if you're afraid of the doctors-"

"_Fuck you_," it came out as a groan as she leaned against the wall, "I'm not scared," she stated indignantly.

"Well you sure as hell look scared the way you look like you'd rather bleed out here in this alley rather than seek proper help!" her eyes glowed with energy and he had to take a deep breath. He did _not_ have the patience for this. In the back of his mind the ticking of a clock sounded, he had a feeling he was running out of time. _Fast._

He reached for her again.

"Don't touch me..." she tossed an aimless hex that didn't go anywhere near him.

"Look, you need help-"

"I don't need anything!"

"If you would just-"

"_Fuck off!_"

"C'mon-"

"_Go to hell!_"

"What is your damn _problem!_" Speedy growled, "I don't get what you're so fucking afraid of! I've been treated by the doctors in that hospital before, you can trust them-"

"The last time I trusted a doctor, _he turned my hair pink!_"

Time, Earth, everything went still as that bit of information hung between the two of them for what seemed like eternity.

Jinx looked like she hadn't meant for that comment to slip out, but she stubbornly refused to let up her glare that still glowed with pink energy. Like a floodgate had been opened, she began to speak in a muddled mumble, "I've always had the pink eyes, that's what scared my parents away...but other than that, I was perfectly _'normal.'_ Then I had to go and get hurt..." she slid to the ground, her speech becoming even more incoherent as Speedy could only stare, "broken wrist...nothing much...still 'nuff to need fix'n...doctor...said he'd help...didn't...experiments...made me a _freak_..."

She was tearing up and barely conscious, shaking her head, "...won't let it happen 'gain..." Sparks began to come off of her, going into the ground, taking out trash cans and causing the nearby street lights to flicker.

Still in shock, Speedy knelt down beside her, unsure of what to do. He hesitantly took her hand and gave it what he hoped was a comforting squeeze, ignoring the burning sensation it gave his hand from all of the rogue hex energy. She looked at him, but didn't really see him. She was growing weaker by the minute. She needed help, and soon. He took a deep breath, "look, Jinx. I don't have anything to say that'll make _this_-" he gestured to her entire being in reference to her feelings towards doctors "-go away, or be any better. But, if we don't get you some help soon, you'll die, and I really don't want that to happen, and I'm pretty sure none of the other Titans do either..." he said in a rush, beginning to panic at the sight of her drooping eyelids, "I promise I won't let anything happen to you, I do, just please, we gotta get you back to the hospital!"

She turned her head to him, her eyes closed briefly before opening to look at him. Past all the fear was a burning desire to live, and that desperation was slowly overtaking anything else, "you promise?"

He nodded resolutely; he'd never been more set about anything in his life.

"...mkay..." and with that, she lost consciousness and the sparks stopped.

Speedy whipped out his communicator and called Raven. Within minutes they were all back at the hospital and Jinx was rushed into urgent care.

The next time Jinx woke up in a hospital room she was more aware of why and how she'd gotten there, though she didn't know how long she'd been out. She was still completely terrified, but found herself too weak to do anything about it. She laid there shaking in her skin, when a voice interrupted her jumbled thoughts.

"'morning...'bout fucking time you woke up..."

She looked to her left to see Speedy in a chair next to her hospital bed. Beside him in another chair and fast asleep, was Kid Flash, who looked more than a little stressed out, even while sleeping.

Speedy followed her line of sight and smirked, "poor guy's been out of his mind for the past couple of days..." _Days?_ "...I don't think he knows what to do without you, you have him so whipped."

She let out a laugh, but it was more of a dry hiss. Her throat was completely dry.

Speedy noticed, "thirsty?"

She nodded slightly.

He reached over to the nightstand table where a glass of water sat and lifted the beverage to her lips. She took a few small sips, and then he set it down, "thanks," she said, her voice scratchy from a lack of use.

"Don't mention it," he leaned back in his seat and the room was once again filled with silence.

The silence allowed Jinx's mind to wander, and she was beginning to feel nervous again. She clasped her hands together to hide the fact that they were shaking, but nothing could cover up the way she jumped at every little sound or how she looked ready to hex anything that moved too suddenly.

Speedy spoke up again, "just so you know, I had Robin do a background check on all the doctors and nurses that have attended to you in the last couple days. Hell, he even checked half the janitorial staff. They're all clean, plus, I've been here pretty much anytime Kid Flash hasn't, keeping an eye on you. I kept my promise, you're perfectly safe here."

She relaxed, but only a little, and gave a small nod.

Silence stretched between the two of them, the only sounds in the room coming from the beeps of the machines that surrounded them and Kid Flash's snores.

After a while, Speedy stood and stretched, "well, better get going..." he gave Kid Flash a hearty thump on the head, "wake up, _Sleeping Beauty_, you're girlfriend's awake."

In less than a second, Jinx found herself smothered by an extremely worried speedster.

As she tried to answer questions about how she was feeling that were fired at her at quite literally a mile a minute, she noticed Speedy walking out the door, "Speedy!" she called after him.

The archer stuck his head back in the door, an inquiring eyebrow rising along with his mask.

"Thanks," she said awkwardly, "I mean, really. I owe you. _Big time._"

She didn't really want to talk about it anymore, and neither did he. He simply smirked and gave her a mocking salute before leaving once again. The message was clear: _Any time._

With a smirk of her own, Jinx turned her attention back to her boyfriend, someone who was much warmer and inviting than any hospital room ever could be. As she took his hand, and Kid Flash pretended to not notice the fact that she held it with a grip of someone holding on for dear life, Jinx realized that she might never get over her fear of hospitals or her complete distrust of doctors. She also realized that there were people in her life that she could trust who were more than willing to help her get through tough spots.

With that knowledge, she felt she would, for the most part, be okay.

**A/N:** _Didn't expect that, did you? Since Lightspeed, there haven't been any friendship fics featuring Jinx. So I gave Kid Flash a break and brought in another red-headed, red and yellow clad hero. I firmly believe that Jinx and Speedy would have an epic friendship based on their mutual BAMF-ness._

_Hope you enjoyed it! R 'n' R baybays!_


End file.
